Buy PDF

Recently emerging from a decade-long civil war, Sierra Leone is making a remarkable recovery. The future holds great promise as well as many challenges for the education system in Sierra Leone. The rapid expansion of enrollments in primary school after the war will place pressure on the secondary school level and careful planning will be required to manage the expansion. As the priority shifts from emergency rehabilitation of schools to established basic service delivery, overcrowded classes and the quality of teaching and learning will need to be addressed. Focus should turn to the children from poor families and to eliminating disparities across regions, urban and rural areas and between boys and girls. The future of the education system will depend largely on the success of the decentralization process, which in turn relies on careful planning and the building of local and central capacity. All of this will require fiscally sustainable long-term development plans for the education sector. This book is an analysis of the education system in Sierra Leone, particularly at the primary and secondary levels. It provides an analytical foundation for the preparation of an education sector-wide strategy.